How the pandemic changed education for students with disabilities & accommodations

How the pandemic changed education for students with disabilities & accommodations

Mario McMinn’s eyes start to burn by hour five of staring at screens. He’s a high school sophomore who isn’t blind but has a visual impairment. When he and everyone else were forced to learn from home in 2020, it meant his whole day was looking at his iPad and computer. https://cpa.ds.npr.org/s528/audio/2022/10/1004stuf.mp3 Listen to this…

Illinois voters will decide whether to enshrine right to unionize in state constitution
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Illinois voters will decide whether to enshrine right to unionize in state constitution

Illinois voters will be asked on the Nov. 8 ballot whether they want to amend the state constitution to enshrine the rights of workers to organize and collectively bargain as a constitutional right. The proposed amendment would codify the rights of private and public sector workers to negotiate wages, working conditions and more. Proponents say…

Pritzker and Bailey cast each other as a liar, hypocrite and danger to the state in live debate

Pritzker and Bailey cast each other as a liar, hypocrite and danger to the state in live debate

NORMAL – The frenetic first televised face-to-face debate between Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker and Republican Darren Bailey Thursday devolved into a battle over who of the two is Illinois’ biggest liar and threat to the state. The high-stakes showdown at Illinois State University — roughly a month ahead of the election — covered abortion, guns…

King, Sorensen outline differences in 17th District U.S. House debate

King, Sorensen outline differences in 17th District U.S. House debate

PEORIA — The two candidates vying for the opening seat representing the 17th U.S. Congressional District had widely differing opinions on a variety of topics during a debate Monday night at Bradley University’s Hayden-Clark Alumni Center. Republican Esther Joy King and Democratic nominee Eric Sorensen are seeking to follow retiring U.S. Rep. Cheri Bustos, D-Moline,…

Examining The Record: Pritzker touts fiscal and crisis management; critics see campaign management

Examining The Record: Pritzker touts fiscal and crisis management; critics see campaign management

Over the past four years, Pritzker made good on campaign promises, but faced criticism for pandemic-related restrictions and a failed tax revamp. When JB Pritzker first announced his run for governor in a packed South Side gymnasium in 2017, he told reporters he’d be a “progressive governor for everyone.” Since then, the Gold Coast Democrat…

Examining The Record: Darren Bailey pushed to fix the state’s ills, but critics call him ineffective

Examining The Record: Darren Bailey pushed to fix the state’s ills, but critics call him ineffective

The GOP nominee for governor gained fame as the voice of opposition on cultural issues — gun rights, abortion — at the statehouse. But he passed few bills of his own. As Illinois’ landmark abortion-rights law was finalized in 2019, current Republican gubernatorial hopeful Darren Bailey grew exasperated about extending protections to an “individual” beyond…

ISU administrator dies following on-campus crash with bicyclist

ISU administrator dies following on-campus crash with bicyclist

An Illinois State University administrator has died four days after he collided with a bicycle on the Illinois State University campus. According to a joint news release from McLean County Coroner Kathy Yoder and ISU Police Chief Aaron Woodruff, 49-year-old Adam Peck died on Friday morning. Peck was a pedestrian who was involved in a…

Old State Capitol

Old State Capitol gets Underground Railroad designation

The Old State Capitol in downtown Springfield has been accepted to the National Park Service’s National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom. That announcement was made Thursday. The building is one of 17 new listings spanning 13 states. The Network, now consisting of more than 700 sites, honors and preserves the history of resistance to enslavement…

Concerns for safety rise as oversight of Illinois prison mental health care ends
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Concerns for safety rise as oversight of Illinois prison mental health care ends

An independent expert who has monitored the mental health care was terminated reducing the transparency around an often failing system. CHICAGO — The Illinois Department of Corrections has long faced accusations of abuse and violence toward people with mental illness and has continually failed to fill positions for mental health care workers. Now for the…

The national wave of unfounded election-fraud accusations does not spare Illinois
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The national wave of unfounded election-fraud accusations does not spare Illinois

Conspiracy theorists inundate election officials across the state with form letters demanding voter records and threatening lawsuits. CHICAGO — No Republican nominee for president has won Illinois since 1988, with Joe Biden beating Donald Trump by more than 1 million votes in the last election two years ago. As a reliably blue state, Illinois has…

Sports betting in Illinois: growing, but not a fix-all
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Sports betting in Illinois: growing, but not a fix-all

Revenues continue to grow as professional sports maintain schedules and betting options increase SPRINGFIELD — It was a slow start for one of Illinois’ newest revenue sources. But sports betting continues to gather momentum. “I’m very happy that we have additional money, that this is on the positive side of the equation,” said Illinois State…

A church in Urbana-Champaign reverses on promises to address abuse allegations

A church in Urbana-Champaign reverses on promises to address abuse allegations

Former members say Covenant Fellowship Church has reneged on its vows to investigate allegations of sexual and spiritual abuse. URBANA — For Janet Park, the events of last year feel like a waste of time and energy. Park is part of a group that last year brought to light allegations of sexual and spiritual abuse…

Chicago seeks central Illinois help with overflow of bused migrants
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Chicago seeks central Illinois help with overflow of bused migrants

The City of Chicago is reaching out to other cities across Illinois for help as it deals with an influx of migrants bused in by red state governors. Chicago has received more than 1,000 immigrants bused north from states, including Florida and Texas. Sending migrants north is meant to highlight what those southern states say…

New climate law injects billions into agriculture conservation programs

New climate law injects billions into agriculture conservation programs

CHAMPAIGN — Illinois State Conservationist Ivan Dozier is happy to explain the reasons why $18 billion has been set aside for United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) farm conservation programs within the bipartisan Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, a $740 billion climate, tax and healthcare spending package signed into law by President Joe Biden this summer….

Metra cancels some Thursday night service as possible freight railroad worker strike looms

Metra cancels some Thursday night service as possible freight railroad worker strike looms

CHICAGO – Some Metra trains won’t be running beginning Thursday night as the commuter rail service braces for a possible nationwide work stoppage by freight railroad workers. Those workers are set to go on strike on Friday if an agreement isn’t reached and while Metra is not involved with negotiations, some of its lines are…